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All Aboard Boats

All Aboard Boats by Kevin Falvey

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Boat builder, former boatyard manager, tournament winning fisherman captain, author of “Falvey’s Guide to Fishing Long Island,” Kevin is the new editor in chief of Boating magazine after spending the last dozen years as Senior Technical Editor. Read full bio
[ January 26, 2012 ]
by Kevin Falvey

Here's a quick review of battery types available for your boat. Whether your just looking to extend the time between charges to keep your bilge pump running or intend to go hybrid and use some combination of internal combustion and electricity to propel your boat, you'll find this primer helpful.

Flooded Electrolyte: The basic battery we all know. Cells composed of lead or antimony plates submerged in an acid bath.

[ January 26, 2012 ]
by Kevin Falvey

Everybody knows what the term turning radius means, but what we are actually referring to, as in Jeff Hemmel’s feature article “Jet Drive vs. Sterndrive,” is the turning circle.

When describing how tightly a boat can make a U-turn, we are measuring the diameter of the circle. As you can see from the diagram, a radius is only one-quarter of the circle. The full turn equals the diameter of the circle the boat would describe if we kept the wheel hard over.

[ December 12, 2011 ]
by Kevin Falvey

Ask Formula Boats president, Scott Porter about the company's Factory Regional Showrooms and he'll tell you they are a success. Formula currently has three such locations: Freeport, New York; St. Petersburg, Florida and Decatur, Indiana--at the company's plant and headquarters. And he intimated that they are looking at more locations, perhaps with an eye on the Pacific Northwest.

[ October 28, 2011 ]
by Kevin Falvey

While boats and motors get oohs and ahhs, gear and equipment gets boaters worked-up and jawing with equal enthusiasm. That's especially true here on opening day at the 2011 Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show. What products are creating the biggest buzz?

[ October 28, 2011 ]
by Kevin Falvey

Day One pounding the docks at the 2011 Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show revealed more new boat model debuts than I've seen in the last three or four major shows combined. Your interest on the showroom floor, and commitment to the world's greatest sport has flushed many a builder with the confidence needed to devote money and resources to new product development. The boat show excitement is back.

[ September 27, 2011 ]
by Kevin Falvey

I am writing this as an old friend is in the hospital recovering after his boat swamped, and then flipped, in Long Island's Shinnecock Inlet. Chris is lucky to be alive, having been pulled from the water by Ryan Horowitz--the 21 -year old son of another friend. Both Chris and Ryan are expert boaters, in my opinion. Born to it, and out on the water both as professional fisherman and recreational anglers every week. My point is that stuff can happen to the best of us.

[ September 2, 2011 ]
by Kevin Falvey
BoatingMagazine
The leaning post as workbench: getting organized is half the battle.

A marine accessory is only as good as its installation. In fact, I'll state right here and right now, that a mediocre product installed properly will deliver better reliability and performance than a quality product installed without attention paid to detail.

[ August 1, 2011 ]
by Kevin Falvey

Chris Fertig of Statement Marine is getting ever closer to setting off on his quest of the Bermuda Challenge. If he makes it, Fertig’s Statement Marine 37 will be the first stern-drive-powered vessel to complete the challenge! Here’s a dispatch from the skipper himself:
 

[ June 10, 2011 ]
by Kevin Falvey

With all the jabber about water-contaminated fuel, there’s a ton of advice to be found regarding additives, filters, and at what level to keep your fuel tank during storage. While the empty-tank/full-tank debate rages on, and most of this advice is great, nobody’s talking about the simplest DIY chore you can perform to keep water out of your fuel: change the O-rings sealing the fuel fill pipes.

[ March 29, 2011 ]
by Kevin Falvey

I’m getting close to launching my Summer Breeze-design skiff as a rowboat, while I work on the sailing bits. In any event, I need a cart to wheel it the 400 feet to the bay. Here's what I came up with. First, I scavenged an old bicycle, some U-bolts, a scrap of carpet, some pressure-treated 4-inch-by-4-inch lumber and a piece of pressure-treated stair tread that washed up on the beach. I purchased a length of 3/8-inch all-thread rod for the axle.

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